Hiring Senior Homecare

This is a video of Dr. Marion Somers. Her website is: http://www.drmarion.com/ . This short and informative video gives you some great information on hiring a home care aide. What I want to do is take you one step further and say that hiring an aide for in home care for you or your loved one involves a lot more than just checking a person’s references. There are many families who think that by hiring a home care aide themselves they are saving money and this is correct but at what cost? In order to hire an aide I suggest that not only should you check references but a background check should be run which includes checking their driving history. A home care agency or home health care agency charge more per hour, but with good reason. Here are a few of the reasons:

1. All references are checked by the agency.

2. The agency does a full criminal background check.

3. The agency sends it’s aides for drug testing.

4. The agency makes sure their aides have their yearly licences renewed for such things as red cross certification, tuberculosis shots, etc.

5. The agency carries liability insurance in case of theft, etc.

6. The agency has back up aides in case of illness or unexpected days off or if you are your loved one decide your current aide is just not the right person.

I have heard horror stories of families trying to save money by hiring their own home care aides. One story in particular I remember was a daughter hiring an aide for her father. Within 3 months her father had passed and the daughter found out her father had changed his will and left everything to the aide. Who do you think was behind the rewriting of the will? It is so sad but there are a lot of people who prey on seniors. The slick con artists do not work for agencies but victimize families who don’t hire an agency. The end result can be far more expensive than the hourly rate of the agency.